Quebec bishops wrong on same-sex unions. (News in Brief).

Quebec City--During the 2002 legislative session of the National Assembly in Quebec City, the government of Premier Bernard Landry made same-sex unions legal. LifeSite News of March 27, 2003, draws attention to a letter on the website of the Quebec Bishops' Conference written one year ago by Archbishop Bertrand Blanchet of Rimouski, saying that the Quebec bishops do not object to homosexual civil unions. As justification Archbishop Blanchet states, "Civil law should not be conformed on every point to the morality of one religion." He also says that "To not object does not mean to approve or promote."

Even on the question of adoption of children by homosexual couples, the AEQ (Assembly of Quebec Bishops), does not object. "Finally, the issue of whether one of the partners of a civil union should have the possibility to adopt children. The first criterion to consider is the good of the child. When one of the partners is his biological parent, it is possible that adoption might be the best solution," says the article.

Comment:

The key to Archbishop Blanchet's faulty reasoning lies in the application of the sentence, "Civil law should not be conformed on every point to the morality of one religion." While the sentence is true, its application is not. Apparently the archbishop believes that Catholics object to legalizing same-sex unions because of some religious foible peculiar to themselves. And similarly so with opposing lesbians and "gays" adopting children.

The Church, however, opposes the legalization of same-sex unions because same-sex relationships themselves are against the natural (moral) law. All people therefore--not just only Catholics, or only Muslims, or only Jews--must object because the sodomite lifestyle attacks the natural law foundation of our society.

In July 2000, the Pontifical Council for the Family issued the document Family, marriage and "de facto" unions. "De facto" unions is another title for what we call common-law marriages. The entire 67-page document is taken up with explaining the damage that is being done to the identity of "real" marriages (matrimonial unions) by legally recognizing common-law unions. To elevate common-law marriages to the juridical level of marriage works to the detriment of truth and justice. Recognizing same-sex unions would make it still worse.

That, of course, is precisely what we have done. Thirty years ago Ontario, for example, out of a false compassion, listed common-law partners as "spouses" and gave them various benefits appropriate to matrimonial unions (Ontario Family Law Act, Section 29). Then in 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered Ontario to give the same benefits to same-sex partners (Mr. Justice Jacobucci in the M vs H case). Today, same-sex practitioners are demanding--and various judges in Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia are ordering--the federal government to elevate what is against the natural law and the will of God; namely, to elevate same-sex unions to juridical equality with marriages. In other words, we are piling error upon error.

This is what the Doctrinal Note on Catholics in political life issued on January 16, 2003, by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith says. (see Catholic Insight, Jan/Feb 2003, p. 22).